A200 AMG - Snow/Ice

Chris Bell

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I'm looking at purchasing a new style A200 AMG but have been put off by reading a lot of comments (albeit some of them quite old) about performance of Mercedes cars in snowy and icy conditions.

Does anyone have any feedback or comments on this?
 

geraldrobins

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I think the A class is front wheel drive whereas most Mercedes are rear wheel drive. With the weight of the engine over the driving wheels the traction of the A class should be good especially with winter tyres if necessary.
 

Blobcat

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Put winter tyres on and it will be excellent
 

L John

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As above, the brand makes little, if any difference. The main thing is which wheels are driving and how many are driven. Good tyres suited to the conditions make a huge difference but that's a different story.
Some cars will have better braking on a slipping wheel to get you moving, it allows the wheel that's not slipping to get more power to the ground. However, in many cases switching ESP off will be beneficial to get a car moving or to go up a slippery hill.
So if a car is set up well with it's ESP it would do better than a poor setup.
I've no idea how good Mercedes are at ESP but I believe Mercedes were the inventor of ABS and they do a lot of winter testing to get the setup working well. ESP uses yaw sensors etc but it it's uses the ABS system to monitor slipping wheels. I don't think other brands will be better at it.
Autos are better when moving in snow but a manual is better when stuck.
 

Blobcat

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As above, the brand makes little, if any difference. The main thing is which wheels are driving and how many are driven. Good tyres suited to the conditions make a huge difference but that's a different story.
Some cars will have better braking on a slipping wheel to get you moving, it allows the wheel that's not slipping to get more power to the ground. However, in many cases switching ESP off will be beneficial to get a car moving or to go up a slippery hill.
So if a car is set up well with it's ESP it would do better than a poor setup.
I've no idea how good Mercedes are at ESP but I believe Mercedes were the inventor of ABS and they do a lot of winter testing to get the setup working well. ESP uses yaw sensors etc but it it's uses the ABS system to monitor slipping wheels. I don't think other brands will be better at it.
Autos are better when moving in snow but a manual is better when stuck.
The ESP in my W211 was so good that without winter tyres it wouldn’t move in West Yorkshire. Car decided it wasn’t safe to go so if didn’t. With winter tyres it would go pretty much anywhere. 4x4’s are great but again if you have low profile wide tyres you won’t get anywhere in snow and ice and as soon as you use the brakes having 4x4 makes no difference at all.
 

L John

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Oops yes, inventor of ESP not ABS, although that may not be correct either.
 

flowrider

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Snow/ice performance is nothing to do with the car and all about the tyres.
 

L John

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Nothing to do with the car, just the tyres and driver?

Sorry but that's wrong, the effectiveness of the ESP program can make some cars better than others.
Traction control can be as effective at keeping you going, as ABS is effective at stopping you quicker and with more control.

ABS is better than the best driver because it can brake individual wheels.
Traction control is better than any driver (if the program is sufficiently advanced) because it brakes a slipping wheel to give more traction on the remaining driving wheels, whether on a 2 wheel drive front/rear or 4 wheel drive. It can make a huge difference.

Also a stuck manual can be rocked out of a rut with proper use of the clutch but an auto is generally too slow at stopping drive completely to allow the car to rock back.
 

John Laidlaw

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If I had an A200 I’d just get Michelin Cross Climates and leave them on regardless - easy :cool:
 

rf065

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ABS is better than the best driver because it can brake individual wheels.
Traction control is better than any driver (if the program is sufficiently advanced) because it brakes a slipping wheel to give more traction on the remaining driving wheels, whether on a 2 wheel drive front/rear or 4 wheel drive. It can make a huge difference.

That argument falls down in snow. On summer tyres in snow, ABS will usually allow the car to keep going as it is constanly reducing brake pressure as each wheel has very little grip and locks up too easy. A good driver can easily beat ABS in snow.
As for traction control, first piece of advice if stuck in snow is to switch the traction control off to allow the wheels to spin.

All modern safety systems, TC, ESP, ABS etc rely on the tyres having traction to work as intended. If out in snow on summer tyres with next to no grip, they cannot do their job. A good driver can easily do better in those conditions.
 

L John

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That argument falls down in snow. On summer tyres in snow, ABS will usually allow the car to keep going as it is constanly reducing brake pressure as each wheel has very little grip and locks up too easy. A good driver can easily beat ABS in snow.
As for traction control, first piece of advice if stuck in snow is to switch the traction control off to allow the wheels to spin.

All modern safety systems, TC, ESP, ABS etc rely on the tyres having traction to work as intended. If out in snow on summer tyres with next to no grip, they cannot do their job. A good driver can easily do better in those conditions.

A good driver can easily beat ABS in snow? A good driver wont even activate the ABS, so being on wont affect anything but it will cut in if a wheel slips, even with a professional driver. It also uses brakes on specific wheels that need it, again no professional driver can do that whether on snow or dry tarmac.
I did mention earlier that it's often beneficial to turn traction control off, it's not a perfect system.
 

Craiglxviii

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If I had an A200 I’d just get Michelin Cross Climates and leave them on regardless - easy :cool:
If you had an A200 I’d be worried about D*******’s profitability!!! :D
 

LostKiwi

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A good driver can easily beat ABS in snow? A good driver wont even activate the ABS, so being on wont affect anything but it will cut in if a wheel slips, even with a professional driver. It also uses brakes on specific wheels that need it, again no professional driver can do that whether on snow or dry tarmac.
I did mention earlier that it's often beneficial to turn traction control off, it's not a perfect system.
Exactly this. ESP and traction control can be counter productive in snow and ice.
Audi in their Quattro models recommend turning it off. Certainly when I had Quattro equipped cars they were undrivable in snow and ice with it switched on.
 

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